Facebook invited members of the press to its Menlo Park headquarters to “learn about a new product” this upcoming Thursday. The rumor is that this new product might be a video feature for its photo-sharing platform Instagram.

According to the social network’s invitation, a “small team has been working on a big idea,” and TechCrunch reports that video support on Instagram, which Facebook acquired for a cool billion dollars last year, just might be that “big idea.” It’s no surprise the largest social space would move in this direction given the ever growing popularity of Twitter’s Vine.

Brands are increasingly seeing the value in using the app to send out short and sweet six-second messages associated with their products to a broad audience.  An even bigger incentive comes from Topsy Analytics, who recently reported that Vine has surpassed Instagram in total Twitter shares. Additionally, fun fact, this milestone occurred just one day after an Android version of the Vine application was released.

A slightly less-likely rumor connected to the press event on Thursday is that Facebook has been working on a news reader to fill the void created once Google Reader closes its doors early next month. “It could be a sort of ‘trending articles on Facebook’ feature, or a more full-blown RSS reader-style product,” TechCrunch explains. The news outlet also adds that it’s possible that this Facebook product won’t be announced until further in the future, well after Thursday’s press event.

For the big Instagram rumor users and advertisers will have to wait until 10 a.m. Pacific this Thursday to find out what Facebook’s really cooking up.

What do you think Is a video feature the right move for the filtered app Would this clutter the platform or enhance the user experience Let us know in the comments below.

Source: TechCrunch